Favorable trends in cloud traffic are a boon for data-center companies, says SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in a positive launch on the sector.

Analyst Inder Singh singled out CyrusOne (NASDAQ:CONE), DuPont Fabros (NYSE:DFT) and Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) as picks in the space, which should benefit from growing bandwidth-intensive applications, particularly streaming video. Traffic is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23% through 2019.

"Given that two-thirds of internet traffic is data center related, the importance of data centers both from a colocation and cloud perspective is significant," says Singh. "Data center traffic is the biggest component of Internet traffic, almost twice as much as the traffic that transverses IP WAN networks."

Mergers and acquisitions could continue, too, as companies look to become "one-stop shops" for clients and pursue scale.

The firm launched CONE, DFT, EQIX and Zayo Group (NYSE:ZAYO) at Buy, along with a Buy rating for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO), as well as a Neutral rating for Internap (NASDAQ:INAP).